Distributing flyers and emails are no longer valid in this generation of digitally-driven people.
Social media is taking over as a platform for awareness, let it be about society or events!
Social media has turned around the definition of promotion. For event planners, promotion is no more just letting the people know about the event, but making the promotion fun for them.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are offering an amiable space for the managers and planners to create buzz filled with jolly content. Social media is delivering them expanded reach and coverage.
There are several ways event managers and planners can take advantage of social media platforms for multiple purposes in and around events.
Social Media for Event Marketing
Event marketers can take a step over social media to level up their event. Beginning from Facebook to engaging the audience on Twitter, here is everything social media can do to make your event a grand success.
1. Make a Facebook Event
To begin with, as soon as you have planned the event, create an event on Facebook with your business page.
According to a study by Facebook, there are more than 2.45 billion active users who visit the platform every month. With such a huge population on board, Facebook can give you vaster exposure than your imagination.
Creating a Facebook event also helps you manage the reach and engagement to retain attention from the users. These days, the Facebook calendar is synced with smart devices to keep the users’ schedule updated and it can give you an additional advantage.
Make sure you name the event creatively in relevance to the industry. Even if it’s an educational conference, you could give it an interesting name.
Optimize the Facebook event by updating an interactive description, add the location, and upload an impressive cover photo that would attract the users visiting the page. Ensure to keep the track on the engagement and reach, so it is not left unmonitored.
Keep on posting updates and photos to engage the users and retain their interest.
2. #HashtagIsImportant
When it comes to social media, whether it is Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, a hashtag is an important tool to make anything trend and involve the users.
Creating an interactive hashtag is important, but its relevance to the event is even more crucial. It must be short, catchy and should be easy when it comes to tweeting, posting on Facebook and sharing on Instagram. The hashtag must be smooth as it is to be used all your marketing touchpoints. Add a fun element to it and it would stick to the users’ minds.
If its a professional event like a conference or seminar, try not to stretch the hashtag but make it simple with just acronyms.
Once you are done with the hashtag, share it everywhere on social media and marketing materials.
3. Instagram for Interaction
Instagram has a population of more than 1 billion monthly active users, as per TechCrunch 2018.
With more than 500 million users creating Instagram stories daily, there is a huge opportunity for event managers to get high engagement and exposure through the channel.
Instagram stories offer various ways to interact with users through quizzes, live streams, and much more. Your event will get more visibility as you engage the audience on social media platforms. With more interesting content, you can add information as well for interactive communication.
Instagram live streams are notified even on the lock-screen to grab the attention of the users. Even on the app, the users can see the live stream on top of the feeds alongside stories. Thus, these are a good idea to promote the event on Instagram.
4. Social Walls for Engagement
UGC is what you see everywhere!
User-generated content has been hyping across the marketing world. It defines the users’ experience in their words with direct emotions.
Social walls like Instagram Hashtag Slideshow are digital displays that showcase the social media content created by the audience for your event. It is an excellent tool to engage the attendees and to create a buzz on social media channels.
There are expert UGC platforms serving your social wall requirements with hi-end UGC management tools. Taggbox aggregates social media to collect, curate, and display user-submitted content from various social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Twitter.
Their responsive configuration is ready to display on any size of the screen, be it a television or a jumbotron. The custom design and layouts make it look attractive and make it more interactive for real-time.
5. Facebook Ads for Targeted Promotion
With everything going on the right path, get more exposure for promotion with Facebook ads. Getting the audience to the event is important. Facebook ads help you define the target you are targetting.
Facebook categorizes the audience based on their location, age, and other factors. It also helps identify and target the audience who have visited your website.
Ads on Facebook allow you to monitor the reach and collect responses to see the users who are showing interest in attending the event.
6. Viral Videos to Lead You
You know the trend of videos getting viral, yeah?
Videos are an amazing idea to make your event the talk of the town. Event marketers can turn to digital media with impressive video content to involve the users to connect with them.
Video marketing is effective in event promotion strategy as it engages people who have confirmed their presence. It helps to persuade and to create conversions for the potential attendees.
The audio-visual content makes it easier for users to connect with the brand and build credibility within the industry.
Drop a teaser video to get the video marketing started and bring up new ideas to engage users.
7. Share on LinkedIn
And if you are organizing a sophisticated, professional event that us industry-specific, LinkedIn is the ideal social platform to promote the event.
The presence of more than 300 million monthly users can give wide exposure to the event.
Get started with a status updated on LinkedIn for event promotion. Add the best photos and eye-pleasing visuals to attract the attention of the users. LinkedIn is a perfect source of communicating with industry-specific professionals and partners.
It also lets you generate leads in order to invite guest speakers.
Redefine Event with Social Media
With social media, every event marketer could redefine the event and its level of engagement. Whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, each channel has got its own features to promote your event in a different way.
These days, social media makes space in the daily schedule of every average person, and thus it is the best way to get noticed. These ideas can get more done with social media for event marketing, as it allows you to interact with your target audience effectively.
Let it be a music concert or a conference, this guiding article would benefit you to promote the event and make it a success.